Sex and education?: Intersecting sex, education, and student activism

Abstract

With a focus on the Eurocentric sex education curriculum, this paper reviews three sub-disciplinary geographic literatures – geographies of education, geographies of sexualities, and geographies of children and youth – with a focus on student activism. I propose that although these dissimilar areas of work are relatively sequestered, they share a common connection, children and youth agency. Through a detailed exploration of these three literatures, this study found three things. First, an inclusive sex education curriculum is important as it has the ability to dismantle harmful heteronormative discourses while providing a safe and inclusive environment for marginalized students. Secondly, school’s and education's purposes are contradictory as they have been used as a way to protect children, but also to prepare them for the responsibilities of adulthood. Lastly, although children and youth are often viewed as incapable of making rational and informed decisions by adults, they are active agents in their everyday lives. They, therefore, are capable of creating social and political change. These findings add to the continuing conversations of these three sub-disciplinaries of geography. They also repeat the call for more research into the combination of these three sub-disciplinary fields to dismantle the hegemonic heterosexual norms.